After conservative activists surfaced that video of Knight disparaging gays, Catholics and Jews as well as Mexicans, the Washington state Democrats announced, under pressure, they would give Knight's $70,000 in campaign donations to charity. Washington Public Disclosure Commission records show that the Democrats gave $35,000 to the campaign to legalize gay marriage and $35,000 to the Anti-Defamation League in November 2012.

"We're considering handling it like any other contribution," said Katie Nelson, chair of the Thurston County Democrats.

Nina Martinez, Latino Civic Alliance chair, said she was disappointed to see Thurston County Democrats accept money from a source of anti-Latino rhetoric, when the state party had rejected money from the same source four years ago.

"I would like to see them donate the money back to a civil rights organization that will help all communities eliminate this hate rhetoric we're seeing in our country today," Martinez said.

Knight has also given at least $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns since 2008, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

"JZ Knight is a member of our community," Nelson said on Monday of the Thurston County Democrats' largest donor. "The people that belong to her organization are interwoven economically and socially into our community. They are a positive aspect of our community."

"They share the same values as the Democratic Party, the Thurston County Democrats, so we accepted their donation like we would any other donation from an organization that believes in our values," Nelson said.

I would like to see them donate the money back to a civil rights organization that will help eliminate this hate rhetoric we're seeing in our country today.

She said the offensive video had been "sliced and diced" to make Knight look racist by conservative activists with the Freedom Foundation, a right-leaning think tank based in Olympia.

"I believe JZ Knight and others when they say the 'offending comments' were edited and taken out of context," Nelson said.

“JZ Knight’s racist comments were not taken out of context," said Susan Hutchison, Washington State Republican Party Chair, in a statement emailed to KUOW. "The Thurston County Democrats continue to accept massive donations from an open racist.”

Knight and her company, JZK, Inc., sued the Freedom Foundation in 2014 not for libel, but for copyright infringement after it distributed DVDs showing Knight speaking inside her school. In a separate case, JZK had sued former student Virginia Coverdale for distributing the videos in violation of a nondisclosure agreement that students at Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment sign.

Natasha Marin is a Seattle artist who noticed a divide on her Facebook feed: Her black friends were angry and frustrated about police shootings of black men, and her white friends were saying they wanted to help but didn’t know what to do.

“There is a discrepancy in the lives of people of color and white-identified people in the United States,” Marin said.